Arboricultural Association supports industry skills survey

The Ornamental
Horticulture Roundtable Group is seeking to investigate the future skills needs
of the Ornamental Horticulture sector, in terms of key skills, and the
requirements and challenges facing the sector in the future (including
scenarios and implications for future workforce change).

Pye Tait Consulting
has been commissioned by the group to carry out a research project involving a
survey of 1,000 businesses across the UK and follow up activity.

The survey will
build on an initial pilot project carried out by Pye Tait Consulting in 2018.
The 2019 survey will seek the views of those working in and across the
ornamental horticulture sub-sectors such as ornamental plant production;
landscape design and maintenance services, arboriculture, garden retail and
garden tourism which includes historic landscapes and sites, private estates
and botanical gardens, among others.

The OHRT is a
stakeholder group, consisting of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development
Board (AHDB), the Arboriculture Association (AA), the British Association of
Landscape Industries (BALI), the Chartered Institute of Horticulture (CIOH),
the Land Based Colleges Aspiring to Excellence (LANDEX) and the Royal
Horticultural Society (RHS).

The survey will be
conducted by telephone, giving businesses the opportunity to provide their view
on skills developments in the foreseeable future, their workforce needs, the
impact of automation, training needs and requirements, and other topics to inform
a skills strategy tailored to the sector.

The telephone survey
will run from late April 2019 until late June 2019. In addition, interviews and
dedicated workshops for business stakeholders are planned for May and June to
further inform the research.

The results from the
survey will help equip the sector in making the case for lobbying government,
requests for funding, informing migratory advisory committee consultations and
providing insight about the demand for, and gaps within, training in the horticulture
sector.

Your input is
therefore of great value for the success of this project which will benefit the
entire sector and its future prosperity.